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Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Sally McManus says the 4.75 per cent increase to award and minimum wages will not negatively impact businesses.
“I again say every year we hear people say this is going to be terrible, and everyone’s going to shut their doors, and they don’t,” she told the Today show.
“When you give people at the bottom pay rises, it does circulate back in the economy … Their wages overall aren’t very large, so when they get an increase, it doesn’t have any knock-on effect to anyone else.”
The Fair Work Commission’s latest increase will see Australia’s minimum wage lift to $26.44 per hour from July 1.
McManus also said unions welcomed the outcome because the increase matched inflation and would therefore ease pressure on the nation’s lowest-paid workers, who were already struggling with the cost of living.
“We are happy, 4.75 is more than inflation, and that’s what you’re always going for, because you want people to get ahead, not get behind … We still don’t know what’s going to happen with inflation, and the war, and everything,” she said this morning.
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